BU’s professor Colin Pritchard was interviewed in The Guardian today about his latest study which shows a link between mental illness and killing children.

Colin told Guardian journalist David Brindle,

“In effect, we have rediscovered the psychiatric-criminological interface with child protection and, although very rare, mentally ill or personality-disordered parents can be a threat to children, especially if the child is included in some delusional or hallucinatory state.”

In a forthcoming study Colins research suggests that there is clear statistical evidence suggesting that children are more at risk from men – especially stepfathers – with histories of violence and from parents with mental disorders. Child protectionworkers should reflect this explicitly in their practice, he says.

Despite his research Professor Pritchard stresses that the overall level of risk to children in the UK is very low and – a consistent theme of his studies – usually overstated by the media. He acknowledges that the vast majority of parents with mental illness never harm their children and can, with appropriate support, provide loving family environments.

Bournemouth University Dementia Institute (BUDI) was launched on 16 May at an event at the Executive Business Centre which was attended by health care professionals, NHS workers, local councillors and members of the public whose lives have been affected by dementia.

Speaking at the launch, Anthea Innes, Director of BUDI said that one of the driving forces for creating the institute was to help promote high quality support and care for people with dementia and their families in a region that has the lowest rate of dementia diagnosis, despite having one of highest proportion of older people in the country.

Professor Tim McIntyre-Bhatty, Deputy Vice-Chancellor opened the launch event, saying the work BUDI will do is very important for the University as is a great example of society-led research. “It’s really important that we understand the context of the country and the way the demographic is changing so that we can support people in health and wellbeing throughout their lives.”

BUDI will conduct service evaluation, training and education, consultancy and engage in high quality research. Professor Innes said that family carers of people with dementia save the NHS £8 billion a year, which is one of the reasons why BUDI will exploreperson-centred care and support for the whole family.

John Major carer and volunteer for the Alzheimer’s Society said,

“We have a common problem and it’s only by working together that we can actually deal with this. Because dementia knows no boundaries, a person with dementia doesn’t say I require nhs care, I require social care, they require care and understanding.”

Issues discussed at the end of the opening meeting included the difficulty of getting a GP to refer a patient to the memory clinic, specialist care home selection for dementia patients, and learning how to be a good carer from health professionals.

Professor Innes spoke about trying to make Dorset a “dementia-friendly holiday destination”,

“We really want to create a more dementia-friendly region, where people can be attracted to come on holiday, so we have a dementia friendly tourism project we have just started.”

Councillor Blair Crawford, cabinet member for Adult Social Care said he had two poignant reasons for attending the BUDI launch,

“Within Bournemouth Borough Council I have the portfolio for adult social care, which includes many people who will have dementia, so I think for me to understand that and the various services is very important.”

Councillor Crawford continued,

“From a personal point of view my father is in the early stages of dementia. He has been having some severe memory loss issues, so it’s been really useful for me to know everything I need to know in order to get him a proper diagnosis.”

The spring 2012 edition of RCN student journal features Dr Janet Scammell discussing the pros and cons of placement grading.

BU has graded nursing students’ performance since 2007 and uses the grades to contribute to their final grades. Both students and mentors have found the system useful and other universities are now starting to use the same system.

Dr Scammell, comments “we felt the usual system of pass or fail provided limited feedback to students about how well or poorly they have performed and that was the rationale for change.”

The system works by using a five-point scoring system, each score is associated with a percentage range and the level achieved links in with the competencies required by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC).

Second year nursing student at BU, Kathleen Butler, says “getting graded highlights which areas you fall down on, but also where you excel. With a pass or fail system, you don’t know whether you’re just scraping by.”

Dr Scammell continues “it would be good if there was a unified system of assessing placement performance across all universities in the UK.”

The placement grading system at BU has been evaluated positively with the system evolving in response to student and mentor feedback since it was introduced.

To mark Eating Disorders Awareness week, which is between 20-26 February, Bournemouth University (BU) is providing a lecture which is open to staff, students and the wider community.

The lecture is entitled Eating Disorders; Promoting Wellbeing, led by Dr Ciaran Newell (Consultant Nurse). The lecture will explore the causes of eating disorders; in particular the environmental contribution, what works to help people suffering from them and ideas into how we can prevent them.

Professor Edwin Van Teijlingen has been to Nepal in January to work with the Nepalese Government in promoting good health across the country.

On 11 January he spoke at a conference that he helped facilitate which highlighted the benefits of community-based intervention for health. The conference was shown the results of two projects carried out by Green Tara UK and Green Tara Nepal which proved the success of intervention so the hope is that such schemes can be rolled out nationally.

Professor van Teijlingen said: “Health Promotion is not the same as Health Education or Public Health. Health Promotion is wider and it aims to help individuals to improve their own health.”

Professor van Teijlingen also attended a five day workshop organised by the Partnership on Improving Access to Research Literature for Higher Education Institutions in Nepal (PARI). Funded by the British Council and DFID, the partnership includes Tribhuvan University, Nepal, the NGO in Kathmandu and two other UK universities – The University of Sheffield and the University of Aberdeen. PARI aims to build research capacity and help higher education institutions in Nepal to access and assess research-based information in health disciplines such as nursing, medicine, pharmacy, and public health.

Professor van Teijlingen said: “PARI has approached the gap in health research in Nepal in separate stages and we are now training a group of Nepalese academics to enable them to conduct their own systematic reviews of the literature.”

Midwifery lecturer Denyse King, from the School Of Health and Social Care, is the first midwife to register on the UK public health register.

This means that Denyse can work closely with service providers in the NHS to produce services for a healthier population. The register chose Denyse for her wealth of experience and extensive midwifery background, as the profession benefits from staff

The Pro Vice Chancellor John Vinney, Sue Ashmore from Unicef and staff received the award today

Bournemouth Universityreceived the internationally-recognised Baby Friendly Initiative Award today for the high quality of education in breastfeeding provided to midwifery students.

The Award was presented by Sue Ashmore, Programme Director of the UNICEF UK Baby Friendly Initiative, presented the award to the staff and students today.

The Baby Friendly Initiative, set up by UNICEF and the World Health Organisation, is a global programme which ensues that high levels of training in breastfeeding are incorporated in midwifery and health visitor training courses.

The University Award recognises that a university has implemented best practice in breastfeeding training, and has passed a thorough external assessment by UNICEF staff.

Sue said BU was particularly deserving of the award,

“The standard of the students skills, the practical skills and their communication skills; they could talk to mothers about how to breastfeed their babies and express their milk which was considered an exception, fantastic as these are people at the beginning of their career which aren’t even qualified yet.”

In September, second year midwifery students from BU underwent a rigorous assessment by UNICEF BFI of their breastfeeding knowledge and skills, achieving an outstanding result in all elements of the assessment. The BFI’s assessors described the students as ‘motivated, confident, knowledgeable and articulate’.

In its report, UNICEF BFI said “The students interviewed demonstrated an exceptional level of knowledge and skill. Their enthusiasm and motivation was also noted and it was clear from conversations during the interviews that the students were putting their knowledge and skills into practice on a regular basis.”

In accepting the award, Professor Paul Lewis, Associate Dean of Midwifery, Rehabilitation and Health Sciences, praised the students and his midwifery teaching team at BU for their exceptional performance.

Professor Lewis said,

“Breastfeeding provides significant health benefits to mothers, babies and our wider society. Breastfeeding protects babies against a wide range of serious illnesses including gastroenteritis and respiratory infections in infancy as well as allergies and diabetes in childhood. We also know that breastfeeding reduces the mother’s risk of some cancers – although mums might be more interested in hearing that it’s easier, cheaper and simply less hassle than bottle feeding.”

Sue Ashmore added that,

“Surveys show us that most mothers want to breastfeed but don’t always get the support they need. Becoming Baby Friendly Accredited means that Bournemouth University is addressing this problem and aiming to ensure more mothers can successfully breastfeed their babies in future.”

Philippa Hudson, senior lecturer in food safety at Bournemouth University, admits that she would only remove a centimetre or so beyond the surface mould to continue eating a product. Stating that is just our harmless old friend Penicillium.

“But it’s important to say that not all of the Penicillium moulds are safe,” she adds. “Some of them do produce toxins and you can’t necessarily tell which are the bad ones by looking at them. It’s not as if all green moulds are good, all white moulds are good and all brown ones are to be avoided.”

How dangerous can moulds be? “Seriously dangerous,” she says. “The genus Aspergillus, which grows on peanuts and peanut products, produces a group of toxins called aflatoxins. They can cause liver cancer – and cooking won’t destroy them.”

If you want to read the full article on the dangers of mould, visit the Guardian website here.

A PHD student at Bournemouth University has won a travel bursary from Santander for £4995.

The money will be used for travel and living expenses, spending 5 weeks this winter and 5 weeks in winter 2012 at the University of Barcelona and the Institute for Clinical Effectiveness and Health Policy.

Santander Universities Global Division has more than 960 universities from America, Asia and Europe abd gives away 600 million euros to finance university projects and partnership agreements with universities each year, as well as creating Universia which is the biggest university network in the world.

Sheetal’s research looks to better understand the constraints of care-seeking behaviour in maternal health and will determine the ways to improve wellbeing through decrease in maternal, neonatal and infant mortality rates and diseases relating to reproductive and sexual health practices and assist in attaining the Millennium Development Goal 5.

Only 5 Santander bursaries of up to £5000 are awarded per year which aims to reward the most academically gifted students from countries that are supported by the Santander Universidades scheme.

The government department for international development each year gives Bournemouth University a scholarship to students studying in the school of Health and Social Care, usually students coming from abroad, especially Africa.

This year Andrew Owen Kalule joins BU from Makerere University in Uganda after winning the scholarship to study MSc Public Health in the school of Health and Social Care at BU’s Landsdowne campus.

Andrew said of his choice to study Public Health at BU,

“The never ending Public Health issues in Uganda and Africa as a continent inspired me to take up this particular course as well as the fact that Public Health is global more so that technology has made our world a small place to live in. Diseases so many miles away can still impact on us. There is no better way to change my community than Public Health. Public Health will offer me this opportunity to make change in this world and make lives of so many people better.”

Andrew praised the support of the academic staff, especially of Dr Liz Norton, and the relaxing and organised environment a great one to study in, and all the extra currciculur facilities which has made BU such an enjoyable place to study.

“I loved going to the beach, the Christian Union Fellow ships at the Hub, the London Excursion plus the Jurassic coast tour during the ISOP week were very interesting.”